Rep. Scalise Announces Full Vote on Hunter’s Contempt Charges Next Week

The full House will vote next week on whether to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress, Majority Leader Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., announced Friday. 

“Floor Vote Announcement: Next week the House will vote to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for repeatedly defying subpoenas,” Scalise posted on X. “Enough of his stunts. He doesn’t get to play by a different set of rules. He’s not above the law.”

The announcement came after the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees on Wednesday voted to hold the president’s son in contempt after he refused to appear for a closed-door deposition in December, stating that he would only testify in a public setting because of his distrust of the Republicans. 

Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, told the House Oversight and House Judiciary Committees that if a new subpoena is issued under the “duly authorized impeachment inquiry” his client will “comply for a hearing or deposition.“

In a letter Friday to Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Lowell said the subpoenas against Biden to testify on Dec. 13 were “legally invalid” because they were issued on Nov. 8 and 9, before the full House voted to formalize the impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden, but under the claims that the first son was being subpoenaed for information on the impeachment inquiry.

“Rather than accepting Mr. Biden’s offer to voluntarily sit for a public hearing, you are now seeking to have the full House find him in contempt based on subpoenas for a deposition that you issued on November 8 and 9, 2023,” Lowell said. “I write to make you aware (if you are not already) that your subpoenas were and are legally invalid and cannot form a legal basis to proceed with your misdirected and impermissible contempt resolution. And you two, of all people, should know that is the case.

“If you issue a new proper subpoena, now that there is a duly authorized impeachment inquiry, Mr. Biden will comply for a hearing or deposition. We will accept such a subpoena on Mr. Biden’s behalf.” 

Criminal contempt of Congress carries a fine of up to $100,000 and up to a year in prison, but many Republican lawmakers do not expect Joe Biden’s Department of Justice to prosecute the case. 

“The Justice Department will not do anything … the American public is growing really tired of this,” Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told Newsmax earlier this week. 

The impeachment vote came after Hunter Biden opted to hold a press conference on Capitol Hill on Dec. 13 rather than participate in the closed-door deposition, where he defended the president and insisted he would testify publicly.

On Wednesday and accompanied by his attorney, the president’s son showed up at the Oversight Committee meeting before it and the Judiciary Committee were to vote on the contempt charges against him.

Hunter Biden on Thursday pleaded not guilty to nine federal tax charges in California where he was arraigned.